Sanitary belt



April 22, 1952 E. v. PrrroN SANITARY BELT Filed Nov. 3, 195o Patented Apr. 22, `1952 SANITARY BELT Eva V. Pitton, Denver, Colo., assignor to InternationalCellucotton: Products Company, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Delaware Application November 3, 1950, Serial No. 193,972

Claims. (C1. 12S-291) 1- This invention relates to an improvement in sanitary belts, i. e., belts employed to support -catamenial napkins, and the main object of the invention is to improve the comfort characteristics of such belts, while also providing' for very secure attachment of the napkin tab to the belt.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be understood by reference to the following specication and accompanying drawing in which there is illustrated a sanitary belt embodying a selected form of the invention.

In the drawing, l'igure l is a perspective illustrating the general construction of the improved sanitary belt; and

Figures 2 and 3 are sections on the lines 2-2 and 3 3, respectively, of Figure 1.

The sanitary belt shown in Figure l comprises an elastic strap or band I which is adapted to encircle the body of the wearer. The band is made adjustable as to its size, suitable adjusting buckles 2, 2 being provided in the connection of the ends of the strap to a triangular front buckle 3. The triangular buckle 3- supports a depending nexible textile fabric strap or other suitable-member 4 and a buckle 5 is suspended from the lower end of said strap. This strap 4 and buckle 5 are at the front of the belt and a similar strap 6 is secured to and depends from the band I at the rear of the belt, and a rear buckle 'I is suspended from said rear strap 6. The straps 4 and 6 are, in this instance, of -non-stretchable material, this being preferred but not essential.

The buckles 5 and 'I may be alike (as here shown) or different types of bucklesV may be provided at the front ,and rear, and they may be made of metal, plastic or other suitable material. The buckles illustrated are slightly tapered downwardly from Wide upper end portions 8 to narrower lower end portions 9. Each buckle has a smooth edged lower opening I0 and an upper opening II, these openings being separated by a bar portion I2 which has a plurality of sharpened teeth which project upwardly into the opening II as shown. At the upper end, each buckle has a cross bar I3 which passes through the looped lower end of the supporting strap 4 or 6 so that the buckle may be rotated on its upper end bar I3 as a pivot.

On each depending strap 4 and 6 there is slidably mounted a circumferentially elastic sleeve I4, the sleeve being slidable up and down on the strap 4 or 6 and over the depending buckle 5 or '1. Due to the circumferential elasticity of the sleeve, it may of course be stretched to t and pass over the widened upper end of the buckle. A suitable tape strip I5 is connected at one end tothe sleeve I4 and at its other end to apart ofthe strap 4 or 6 above the highest position to which the sleeve is required to be moved. The sleeve I4 maybe ma-de of woven, knitted or other suitable textile material having suitableV resiliency due to the incorporation of resilient rubber or like strands n the fabric, or to the weave of the fabric, and sleeves made entirely of natural or synthetic resilient material may bel used. A simple knitted tubular member having inherent resiliency may be used but in the illustrated construction, the sleeve is formed of a length of Woven, elastic tape having its ends stitched together and to a portion of the strap I5. This tape member I5 is of such length that it will permit the sleeve I4 to slide downwardly to a position surrounding the buckle but will normally prevent the sleeve from being moved downwardly oi the buckle.

While the details of construction of the sleeve I4, the depending straps 4 and 6 and the anchoring straps I5 are not critical but may be varied considerably, certain satisfactory details are shown in Figures 2 and 3. As there shown the strap- 4 comprises a single thickness of suitable woven textile tape material which has its lower end portion I1 inserted forwardly through the i opening I IV and then turned upwardly and stitched as indicated at I8 to the adjacent rearwardly disposed portion of the strap. The upper end portionl9 of the strap 4 is passed rearwardly through the opening in the triangular buckle 3 so as to extend over the lower leg 20 of said buckle and it is then turned downwardly into face-to-face engagement with the rear side of the upper end portion of the sleeve anchoring strap I 5. This sleeve anchoring strap I5 may conveniently be formed of a length of suitable non-stretchable ribbon or tape which is passed through the sleeve I4 and then folded upwardly on itself, the upper ends of the strap terminating immediately under the bar 20 of the buckle 3 intermediate the strap 4 and the downturned upper portion I9 of said strap. Stitching indicated at 2 I' may be passed through the plies of the strap structure immediately below the lower b-ar 2Il of the buckle 3 and stitching suchl as indicated' at 22 may be passed through the rear ply of the strap I5 and the adjacent portion of the sleeve I4. Hence, it willI be seen that the anchoring strap I5 is anchored to the belt band I (through the agency of the strap 4 and buckle 3) and the sleeve I4 is secured in fixed position to the lower end of the anchoring strap I5 so that the latter will limit the extent t0 wardly so as to be impaled on the upwardly projecting teeth 24 of the cross bar portion I2. The napkin may be easily disengaged from the buckle by rotating the buckle about its upper cross bar I3 as a pivot, to an inverted position in which slight downward pull on the napkin will disengage y the same from the teeth 24 and permit the napkin tab 23 to be freely pulled from the buckle. While the napkin is very securely held by the described engagement with the buckle, the security of such attachment is increased by sliding the sleeve I4 downwardly into position around the buckle 5 and around the redoubled attachment tab 23, substantially as shown in Figure 2. The elasticity of the sleeve permits it to expand as required to t over the attachment tab thickness and also to conform to the ,downwardly tapered shape of the buckle. This downward taper of the buckle and the slightly protruding attachment tab thickness serves to resist upward selfdisplacement of the sleeve I4 although manual upward displacement may be readily effected preliminarily to disengaging the napkin tab from the buckle as above explained.

The details of the support for the rear buckle 1 may be similar to those illustrated in respect of the front buckle 5 but in the rear the structure is supported by direct attachment to the band I. This is illustrated in Figure 3 where the buckle supporting strap 6 is shown as having its upper end portion extended upwardly over the band I then forwardly and downwardly over the inside thereof. Stitching indicated at 25 secures the strap 6 in place and also serves to secure said strap to the intervening plies of the .doubled sleeve suspending strap I5, the upper end portions of which are respectively extended over the outside and inside faces of the band I las shown.

Other forms of buckles may be employed in connection with the described sliding cover sleeve arrangement and, regardless of the kind of buckle used, the slidable sleeve serves the purpose of preventing or at least of minimizing discomforts which have commonly been experienced with conventional sanitary belts due to direct contact of the hard buckles with the body and the tendencies of the buckles, especially at the rear, to poke into the body of the wearer under some circumstances, as for example, when the wearer sits down. The slidable sleeve constitutes a protective, cushioning cover which, together with the cushion-forming tab portions enclosed in the cover, provide softness which prevents irritation and chang in areas of body contact where conventional belts are hard and rigid and tend to cause very uncomfortable irritation and chang. Hence the covering sleeve furnishes a highly desirable comfort characteristic in a sanitary belt.

While the constructional details described have unit relative to said associated buckle, and means for preventing removal of said sleeve from the belt.

2. A sanitary belt having a depending strap, a buckle carried by said strap for detachably securing a sanitarynapkin to the belt, and a soft,

Y exible sleeve, the entire sleeve being slidable as a unit on said strap and buckle from and to a position around said strap above said buckle respectively to and from a position surrounding said buckle and sanitary napkin tab portions engaging said buckle for attachment to the belt as aforesaid.

3. A sanitary belt having a depending strap, a buckle carried by said strap for detachably securing a sanitary napkin to the belt, and a circumferentially elastic sleeve slidable on said strap and buckle from and to a position around said strap above said buckle respectively to and from a position surrounding said buckle and sanitary napkin tab portions anchoringly engaged with said buckle, and an elongated iiexible member secured at one end to said sleeve and at its other end to a portion of the belt above the position of said sleeve when disposed around said strap, said flexible member being of a length to limit the sliding movement of said sleeve from said strap position to a predetermined position around said buckle.

4. A sanitary belt having a depending buckle through which a sanitary napkin tab is adapted to be passed for anchorage of one end of the napkin, a circumferentially elastic sleeve slidably associated with said buckle, the entire sleeve being slidable as a unit to and from a position surrounding said buckle and sanitary napkin tab portions engaged therewith, and va member secured at one end to said sleeve and at its other end to a portion of the belt above the position of said sleeve when disposed about said buckle for preventing removal of said sleeve from the belt.

5. A sanitary belt having a .depending strap, a buckle carried by and rotatable on said strap for detachably securing a napkin to the belt, a soft, circumferentially elastic sleeve, the entire sleeve being slidable as a unit on said strap and buckle from and to a position around said strap above said buckle respectively to and from a position surrounding said buckle and sanitary napkin tab portions anchoringly engaged with said buckle.

f EVA V. PITTON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the 

